Ft Lauderdale - The Departure

We flew red-eye to Ft Lauderdale the night of Tuesday January 31^st and had an uneventful trip on the TriRail to Delrey Beach, where we were picked up by the one and only Bubster for a short but fun visit whose highlights included a manicotti dinner on Wednesday prepared by Cousin Zach, with his wife Liz, their friends Jean and Andy, and one of my mother’s longest-term friends Sheldon and his daughter Rebecca. Other highlights (aside from a lot of talking and laughing) included Miniature golf, Oceana Restaurant, and lunch at the French Bakery in Lake Worth Beach with our new friend Melanie.

Friday morning we were woken by pouring rain and wind. The rain stopped and we left about 9:30 via Uber, and by 11 were seated in the departure lounge. There were at least 5 ships in our portion of the docks, and we were the smallest by quite a bit. We boarded around 11:45 and our room was already ready, so we dropped off our carryons and headed to the dining room for the mariner lunch. This is our first cruise since 2014, and quite a few things have changed. The mariner lunch used to be well publicized and open to anyone who had sailed on HAL before; now it’s secret and only open to 3 star mariners (which we are) and above. We ended up at a 6 top with some veteran cruisers and had a nice lunch.

We went back to our cabin to try on our life jackets and watch the safety video, then checked in at our muster station and did a little touring of the ship since our bags hadn’t yet arrived. The Zaandam is a smaller ship than the Vista-class ships we’ve usually taken. One downside to that is that they only have small and large veranda cabins, rather than the 1.5 size we’ve been enjoying. So our stateroom is the small size, which us about the same size as our trailer, so we’re used to it.

All of the public rooms are also smaller, but don’t worry, there are the same number of shops 😊. One big advantage of this ship is that there is a lot more outside space in the front and back of the ship, which we really, really like. The gym is much smaller & doesn’t have the Pilates reformer that the big ship has, which is disappointing, but they do have Mat Pilates which will be fun. They also have a good sized library and puzzles and games available, and there’s Mah Jong every day from 1-3.

Back to our cabin once again and our suitcases have arrived. A big plus to the larger cabins is that two people can pack/unpack at the same time, but we got it figured out. Then it was time to go topside for departure. This is where the Zaandam really shines, because there’s a front deck on deck 6 (which happens to be our deck) that is perfect for watching the departure.  The wind that woke us in the morning was still blowing and the rain came back in spits, but it was one of the best departures we’ve ever had. The pilot boat was plowing through the waves and we were really feeling it. We could look up to the bridge and wave at the pilot (he waved back!).

Once we were safely at sea, we went back to our room. I hadn’t put my hair in a ponytail for most of the time we were on deck, so I spent the next half hour working a comb through it. Meanwhile Dave tried to figure out what time our dinner seating was for. He made several fruitless phone calls and finally headed down to guest services to see if he could get an answer. He didn’t get to the front of the line, but while he was waiting he got out his room key and found it written on there. It turns out we’re at the late seating, which made me a little crabby until I realized that we could go up to the Lido for a snack, which we did. It made me much less sensitive. We sat up there and got many technical issues resolved, and now both have reliable internet. Well, as reliable as the ship’s, anyway. It turns out that you have to keep refreshing the internet from the navigator app, but other than that things are good. We had time to listen to the end of Piano Cocktails and the beginning of the Ocean Bar band before dinner.

We’re at a round table for 8, but tonight only 5 of us were there – Joel, a former banker from MA., and Sid and his wife, an older couple from Stamford CT. They are ok cruise mates, and we’re hoping for a full table tomorrow. We think the food is good, and our waiter Frankie is very good.

After dinner we went outside to the front deck on our level and boy was it windy! The door is on the port side, and we thought it might be less windy on the starboard side but oh no it was not! We had to hang on to the handrail to get back across.

Then we went to the back of the ship but it was raining there, so we went inside. We could hear the ocean bar band, so we put our jackets away and went down to listen. They started playing dance music so I had to get up and dance even though there were only two other people on the dance floor, but when other women saw me shakin’ my tailfeathers all by myself they came and danced with me, and eventually we had the whole dance floor filled. It was excellent.

Of course now I am too wired to sleep, but the ship is moving along quite well through some pretty good swells, so there’s a deep vibration as well as a gentle rock. I suspect I’ll be asleep shortly.